1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid supply implement having a tank which accommodates a liquid, and supplying the liquid from a tip end supply element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional liquid supply implements have a problem that a leakage of an accommodated liquid occurs when an internal air in the liquid supply implements is expanded due to variation of an atmospheric pressure difference between the external air and the internal air pressure etc. and the liquid drops from the liquid supply part at a tip end portion of the liquid supply implement.
A lot of known liquid supply implements including liquid reservoir parts have been proposed in order to prevent such a problem (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-2989 (FIGS. 1 to 4), Japanese Patent Publication of International Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-512668). The liquid reservoir part comprises a temporary storage chamber constituted of annular grooves formed into a so-called bellows shape, and the temporary storage chamber is provided outward in an outer diameter direction of a guide part connecting the tank and the tip end supply element so as to be separated from the guide part. The liquid reservoir part has a liquid flow port communicating with the tank at a rear end portion of the liquid reservoir part and an air flow port communicating with an outside at a tip end portion of the liquid reservoir part.
The liquid overflowing the tank due to rise in the internal air pressure passes through the liquid flow port by a capillary force and accumulates in the temporary storage chamber constituted of the bellows-shaped grooves, and when the air pressure returns to an original level, the liquid returns into the tank from the temporary storage chamber through the liquid flow port.
However, even in such a liquid supply implement, if a liquid whose amount exceeds the storage capacity of the temporary storage chamber overflows the tank, the extra liquid leaks to the outside. Therefore, there arises a problem that the size of the tank and the liquid storage amount are limited by the capacity of the temporary storage chamber, and the liquid supply implement cannot accommodate a large amount of liquid by being subjected to the limitation of the capacity of the temporary storage chamber.